Jeffrey Archer - Sons of Fortune

‘I don’t think so,’ said Nat, ‘not for ten dollars.’

Su Ling laughed as her husband picked up the phone once more. ‘I need a porter and could the bill be ready by the time we come down, as we’ll be checking out.’ He paused, listened, and said, ‘Ten minutes.’

He turned to see Su Ling buttoning up her blouse. He thought about her finally falling asleep the night before, and his decision to leave Korea as quickly as possible. Every moment spent in that city would only remind her...

At the airport Nat waited in the queue to collect the tickets, and thanked the woman behind the counter for dealing with his early morning request so promptly. Su Ling had gone off to order breakfast while he checked their bags in. Nat then took the escalator to the first floor restaurant, to find his wife seated in a corner, chatting to a waitress.

‘I haven’t ordered for you,’ she said as Nat joined her, ‘because I told the waitress that after a week of marriage I wasn’t sure if you’d turn up.’

Nat looked up at the waitress. ‘Yes, sir?’ she said.

‘Two eggs, sunny side up, bacon, hash browns and black coffee.’

The waitress studied her pad. ‘Your wife has already ordered that for you.’

Nat turned and looked at Su Ling. ‘Where are we going?’ she asked.

‘You’ll find out once we’re at the gate, and if you go on being a nuisance, not until we land.’

‘But...’ she began.

‘I’ll blindfold you if necessary,’ said Nat as the waitress returned with a pot of steaming coffee. ‘Now I need to ask you some serious questions,’ Nat said, and saw that Su Ling immediately tensed. He pretended not to notice. He would have to remember not to tease her too much for the next few days as she so obviously still had one thing uppermost in her mind. ‘I recall you telling my mother that when Japan came on-fine with the computer revolution, the entire technological process would speed up.’

‘We’re going to Japan?’

‘No, we’re not,’ said Nat, as his order was placed in front of him. ‘Now concentrate, because I may have to rely on your expertise.’

‘The whole industry is on the gallop right now,’ said Su Ling, ‘Canon, Sony, Fujitsu have already overtaken the Americans. Why? Are you thinking of looking into new IT companies? In which case, you should consider...’

‘Yes and no,’ said Nat as he turned his head and listened carefully to an announcement on the PA system. He checked the bill and covered it with his last few Korean notes, and then stood up.

‘Going somewhere, are we, Captain Cartwright?’ asked Su Ling.

‘Well, I am,’ said Nat, ‘because that was my last call, and by the way, if you have other plans, I’ve got the tickets and the travellers’ cheques.’

‘Then I’m stuck with you, aren’t I?’ said Su Ling as she quickly drained her coffee and checked the departure board to see which gate was showing final calls. There were at least a dozen. ‘Honolulu?’ she said as she caught up with him.

‘Why would I want to take you to Honolulu?’ asked Nat.

‘To lie on the beach and make love all day.’

‘No, we’re going somewhere where we can meet my former lovers by day, while we still make love all night.’

‘Saigon?’ said Su Ling, as another city flicked up on the departure board. ‘Are we going to visit the scene of Captain Cartwright’s past triumphs?’

‘Wrong direction,’ said Nat, as he continued walking towards the international departure gate. Once their passports and tickets had been checked, Nat didn’t bother to stop at duty free, as he continued heading for the check-in desks.

‘Bombay?’ hazarded Su Ling as they passed gate number one.

‘I don’t think there are many of my old lovers to be found in India,’ Nat assured her as they passed gates two, three and four.

Su Ling continued to study the posted names as they walked towards each gate. ‘Singapore, Manila, Hong Kong?’

‘No, no, and no,’ he repeated as they passed gates eleven, twelve and thirteen.

Su Ling remained silent as they continued on — Bangkok, Zurich, Paris, London, before Nat came to a halt at gate twenty-one.

‘Are you travelling to Rome and Venice with us, sir?’ asked the lady behind the Pan Am desk.

‘Yes,’ said Nat. ‘The tickets are booked in the name of Mr and Mrs Cartwright,’ he said as he turned to face his wife.

‘You know something, Mr Cartwright,’ Su Ling said, ‘you are a very special man.’

Over the next four weekends Annie lost count of the number of potential homes the two of them viewed. A few were too large, some too small, while others were in a district they didn’t want to live in, and when they were in a neighbourhood they liked, they simply couldn’t afford the asking price, even with Alexander Dupont & Bell’s assistance. Then one Sunday afternoon, they found exactly what they were looking for in Ridgewood, and within ten minutes of walking in the front door they had nodded to each other behind the agent’s back. Annie immediately phoned her mother. ‘It’s absolutely ideal,’ she enthused. ‘It’s in a quiet neighbourhood with more churches than bars, more schools than movie houses and it’s even got a river meandering right through the centre of town.’

‘And the price?’ said Martha.

‘A little more than we wanted to pay, but the realtor is expecting a call from my agent Martha Gates; if you can’t get the price down, Mom, I don’t know anyone who can.’

‘Did you follow my instructions?’ asked Martha.

‘To the letter. I told the agent we were both school teachers, because you said they always hike the price for lawyers, bankers and doctors. He looked suitably disappointed.’

Fletcher and Annie spent the afternoon strolling round the town, praying that Martha could get them a sensible deal, because even the station was only a short drive from their front door.

After four long weeks finalizing the deal, Fletcher, Annie and Lucy Davenport spent their first night at their new home in Ridgewood, New Jersey on 1 October 1974. No sooner had they closed the front door than Fletcher announced, ‘Do you think you can leave Lucy with your mother for a couple of weeks?’

‘It doesn’t worry me having her around while we’re getting the house in shape,’ said Annie.

‘That wasn’t what I had in mind,’ said Fletcher. ‘I just thought it was time we had a holiday, a sort of second honeymoon.’

‘But...’

‘No buts... we’re going to do something you’ve always talked about — go to Scotland and trace our ancestors, the Davenports and the Gates.’

‘When were you thinking of leaving?’ asked Annie.

‘Our plane takes off at eleven tomorrow morning.’

‘Mr Davenport, you do like to give a girl a lot of notice, don’t you?’

‘What are you up to?’ asked Su Ling as she leaned across to watch her husband checking over a column of figures on the financial pages of the Asian Business News.

‘Studying currency movements over the past year,’ Nat replied.

‘Is that how Japan fits into the equation?’ enquired Su Ling.

‘Sure is,’ said Nat, ‘because the yen is the only major currency in the past ten years that has consistently risen in value against the dollar, and several economists are predicting that the trend will continue for the foreseeable future. They claim the yen is still massively undervalued. If the experts are correct, and you’re right about Japan’s expanding role in new technology, then I think I’ve identified a good investment in an uncertain world.’

‘Is this to be the subject of your business school thesis?’

‘No, however that’s not a bad idea,’ said Nat, ‘I was thinking of making a small currency investment and if I prove to be right, I’ll notch it up a few dollars each month.’